Opposition to 'Ground Zero Mosque' Plays Into the Hands of Bin Ladin

Thursday, 26 August 2010 16:16

“It's striking that many American Republicans share with al-Qaeda the view that the West and the Islamic world are caught inevitably in a ‘clash of civilisations’”.

This is what Nicholas Kristof’s article in The Scotsman yesterday had to say about the hysteria that has been whipped up in opposition to plans to build an Islamic centre in New York – the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” (which is neither at Ground Zero, or a mosque).

Kristof asks, “Is there any doubt about Osama bin Laden's position on the not-at-ground-zero mosque? Osama abhors the vision of interfaith harmony that the proposed Islamic centre represents.”

He is one of a chorus of commentators that are highlighting the hypocrisy and wilful ignorance of the facts of opponents of the centre. Among others that have highlighted the same arguments have been Alex Massie, Mark Steel, Charlie Brooker and Andrew Brown in The Guardian. Why is it that the facts seem lost on American Republicans and the right wing media when it comes to this issue – facts that are so well outlined in the linked pieces?

To reiterate just one fact, the centre is not being built at Ground Zero. It is two blocks away and, by some reports, you would not even be able to see it from Ground Zero. If the area is such hallowed ground, as one argument goes, why is the building of an Islamic center offensive, yet the fact that there is a strip club at the Ground Zero area not offensive?

Another common argument is that somehow the building of this centre is an act of provocation by Muslims – a symbol of the supremacy of militant Islam over the West. The fact is that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemn the 9/11 attacks. Would law-abiding, tax paying, ordinary citizens not take offense to being pigeon-holed in to the same category as militants that carry out terrorist attacks? This argument would try to have us believe that they are one and the same.

Kristof's piece was originally featured in the New York Times in which he alludes to why the facts may be inconvenient and buried by those who would seek to stir up controversy on this issue.

“For much of American history, demagogues have manipulated irrational fears toward people of minority religious beliefs, particularly Catholics and Jews. Many Americans once honestly thought that Catholics could not be true Americans because they bore supreme loyalty to the Vatican.

Today’s crusaders against the Islamic community center are promoting a similar paranoid intolerance, and one day we will be ashamed of it.”

An editorial in USA Today further adds that,

“The argument rages on because it's easy and politically profitable to stoke the emotional embers of 9/11, because the news media love controversy, and because the Internet gives voice to some Islamophobes who impute to all Muslims the motives of terrorists. Fear sells. Always has, always will.”

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